Councilmember Paul Vallone wants sparks to fly during his time in office.
The freshman legislator launched idea after idea — including shooting fireworks on Bell Boulevard and hosting movie and game nights — during a two-hour interview with The Courier.
“I want to bring back that old-time feel,” he said, gazing at the boulevard out of his fifth floor Bell Plaza windows.
“You look at things from a different perspective,” he said. “As a father, I think, ‘What would my kids want to do?”
His long list of plans for the district also include having quarterly roundtables with the district’s community groups and starting up a new Student Ambassadors program in February with three local high schools.
The initiative allows about 10 juniors from Holy Cross High School, Bayside High School and World Journalism Preparatory to serve for a year as community representatives.
The teens would organize food collections and cleanups, take trips to City Hall and even draft a bill to be introduced in the City Council.
“It’s the next generation’s input,” Vallone said. “I’m not going to touch it, whatever they draft.”
As for his own bill, Vallone filed his first piece of legislation Jan. 9, calling for the city to recognize Lunar New Year as a major holiday.
It supports a law already introduced in the State Senate and Assembly that has not moved for years.
The lawmaker also plans to continue participatory budgeting, which begins in 2015 at its earliest. The city initiative gives residents the chance to develop and vote on physical infrastructure projects they want to see in their neighborhoods.
At the top of his growing list of priorities is still making sure a school is not built in the former Whitestone Jewels site.
“This is nonstop,” he said. “We’re still watching.”
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